The U.S. Department of the Interior
has selected Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to participate in a $10 billion, 10-year contract to
provide cloud and hosting services. This is potentially one of Verizon's
largest federal cloud contracts to date.

Verizon is one of 10 companies that will compete to offer cloud-based storage,
secure file transfer, virtual machine, and database, Web, and development and
test environment hosting services. The company is also one of four selected
to offer SAP application hosting services.

Each of the 10 agreements awarded under the Foundation Cloud Hosting Services
contract has a potential maximum value of $1 billion.

A key component of the department's IT Transformation initiative, the
Foundation Cloud Hosting Services contract has an initial three-year term that
can be extended through April 2023. The contract is an essential pillar of
the department's multiyear transformative initiative, which is expected to
produce savings of $100 million a year from 2016 through 2020.

The contract will enable the Department of the Interior to modernize the way
it manages applications and stores data, and control costs through a reduction
of its data center footprint.

The services covered by the contract will be available to all nine of the
department's technical bureaus and seven administrative offices covering more
than 2,400 locations and 70,000 employees. The department also expects that
other federal departments and agencies will use the contract to purchase cloud
services.

"Verizon has a history of successfully providing advanced networking and
security solutions to the Department of the Interior," said Susan Zeleniak,
senior vice president, public sector markets, Verizon Enterprise Solutions.
"The Foundation Cloud Hosting Services contract represents an expansion of
Verizon's engagement with the department and will enable it to leverage
Verizon's significant cloud investments and expertise to help the department
achieve its long-term objectives."

The Department of the Interior provides stewardship for 20 percent of the U.S.
land mass and manages national public lands, minerals, parks and wildlife
refuges. It is also responsible for wildlife and endangered species
conservation, historic preservation, land protection and restoration, mapping
and geological, hydrological and biological science initiatives, as well as
Indian and Alaska Native programs.